The Future Has Arrived

Okay, you're probably wondering what's up with the pictures above. These are photographs taken on the inside of the ride "Spaceship Earth" at EPCOT. It was recently renovated, so I'm not sure if this part is still in the ride - which is funny because I just rode it with Madison a few months ago. I do know this: it was there in 1982 when I first went on the ride with my family.

What's going on is this: a guy is sitting at his television, teleconferencing with this other girl in Japan. You pass by the girl and the guy, and see them from each other's perspective, and you think to yourself, "Wow, that's really futuristic! Wouldn't that be cool if you could really do that?" Seriously: talking on a television screen just like it was a telephone? Believe me: in 1982, that was pretty futuristic.

So tonight Daddy said goodnight to Madison on Skype. For those of you not familiar with what that is, this is a fairly recent internet service that allows you to do exactly what I described above. The future has arrived today, at least for this house. I don't know what took me so long to sign up for this, but it was just like I had a flashback to 1982. There I was at work, talking to Madison at home. I was showing her all the books someone had donated to her - and I could see her expression on the computer screen. We were talking to each other while miles apart, and I was making her giggle. Mommy and Madison said, "I love you," and we all made that little hand gesture to express as much. It was a really sweet moment, and a neat thrill.

I know the service has been around a few years, but for some reason I hadn't tried it out yet. Now I think it'll be the perfect way to say goodnight to my little girl when I have to work a little late. Also, we'll probably be using it to talk to some of the relatives in England now, which is going to be pretty cool. We'll be talking to someone all the way across the ocean - it'll be just like that ride in 1982!